“He also ran into a bit of trouble back in the 80s; demonstrating 30mm anti-tank gun at the Pentagon, the weapon discharged and destroyed a pump at a nearby gas station. Misdemeanor charges against him were later dropped.”
Don’t know about that. When I flew the Hog we heard a steroy about a guy having a barrel and round. . .without permission, and accidently discharges the weapon on civiv street somewhere and hit a gass station. Demonstrating a 30mm round at the Pentagon? Please explain that as the Pentagon is an office building surrounded by parking lots and buildings and is not a range.
“The Air Force has always hated the A-10, but they can’t find anything that can replace it.”
True.
“Also, the notion that the Hawg is easy meat for other fighters is a bit far-fetched. I participated in a couple of Red Flags where A-10s claimed valid kills against F-16s or F-18s that tried to get low and slow with them.”
I have too, as well as gun kills against the F-18.
“In both cases, the “real” fighter pilot couldn’t get a radar track on the A-10 (due to terrain) and couldn’t get a tone for their AIM-9 (because of reflected heat off the desert).”
Of course, you do know AIM-9’s can now lock on and track even hot cars on the highway and with AMRAAMs don’t jam off on ground clutter, not with the radars we have now.
“Fox 8?” Never heard of that. Always called “Guns, guns, guns” as a kill call. (We didn’t usually call “FOX 4” because we were NOT going to use a bombers termonology.)
Heard the same version of Dilger’s “discharge,” and he was originally facing felony weapons charges. But by the time he went to court, the charges had been reduced to misdemeanors and he walked. Must have had a good lawyer. Connections on Capitol Hill didn’t hurt, either. From a newspaper account at the time: